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New
York-bred Divisional Champions for 2007
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Naughty New Yorker is NYTB's top '07 champ by Rab Hagin
 Photo: Adam Coglianese |
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NAUGHTY
NEW YORKER
NYTB Horse of the Year for 2007 |
Fox Ridge Farm's NAUGHTY NEW YORKER overshadowed six New York-bred 2007 graded/group winners to gain the New York Thoroughbred Breeders (NYTB) 2007 Horse of the Year and Champion Older Male honors at the NYTB's annual awards banquet on Monday evening, May 12 at the Gideon Putnam Hotel in Saratoga Springs. The 2006 graded-winning veteran -- currently a six-year-old in training and less than an overnight purse short of becoming a millionaire -- won 2007 stakes at all three New York Racing Association (NYRA) tracks and also placed in three graded stakes for the year. Another New York-bred honored twice at the banquet was 2007 Grade 2 winner OPRAH WINNEY, who was named Champion Four-and-Up Female and Champion Female Sprinter.
Named Champion Turf Male in a talented division that included three graded/group winners was 2007 Grade 2 winner DAVE. Honored as Champion Male Sprinter in another loaded specialty division was 2007 Grade 2 winner and millionaire FRIENDLY ISLAND, who also had placed second among 16 in the $2-million Group 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen at Nad Al Sheba in March of 2007.
Unbeaten 2007 juvenile and projected Preakness starter GIANT MOON was named Champion Two-Year-Old Male, and another 2007 unbeaten two-year-old, BY THE LIGHT, was a deserving recipient of Champion Two-Year-Old Filly honors after having won four starts by 19-1/2 combined lengths in New York and Louisiana. Super-versatile STUNT MAN, who won stakes on all four NYRA dirt tracks and was stakes-placed in his turf debut at Saratoga, beat out a graded-winning colt to take the Champion Three-Year-Old Male title. Three-time 2007 stakes winner TALKING TREASURE won the Champion Three-Year-Old Filly title over three open Aqueduct stakes winners, and recent turf discovery FACTUAL CONTENDER beat out a 2007 multiple graded grass winner to gain a well-earned honor as Champion Turf Female. Named as Champion Steeplechaser was three-year-old BE CERTAIN, who in his second effort over jumps had broken his maiden in a hurdle stakes.
Considered for but not winning any NYTB titles were 2007 multiple graded-winning four-year-old turf filly J'RAY, 2007 Saratoga graded-winning three-year-old turf colt MISSION APPROVED, and 2007 Italian group-winning six-year-old DREAM IMPACT, who scored four of his 16 career wins last year.
NAUGHTY NATISHA, who had produced Naughty New Yorker as her second stakes winner and third of four winning offspring and is due to produce a half-sibling to that NYTB champion in the next couple of weeks, was honored as NYTB Champion Broodmare of 2007.
The partnership that owns the stallion HOOK AND LADDER and stands him at Sequel Stallions New York in Hudson was honored with the Thoroughbred Times 2007 Freshman Sire of the Year in New York award from that weekly trade publication. Like previous freshman sires Belong to Me (in 1997) and City Zip (in 2005) whose first crops were New York-conceived, Hook and Ladder had two first-crop juvenile stakes winners -- but unlike those aforementioned two, he has remained in the Empire State for his fifth season at stud.
Human honorees were EIBAR COA, Jockey of the Year for the second consecutive year; GARY CONTESSA, Trainer of the Year for the third time in the past four years; and SEZ WHO THOROUGHBREDS (RICHARD SIMON), Breeder of the Year for the third consecutive year.
Serving as Master of Ceremonies at the NYTB banquet was WRBG/Channel 6 veteran news and morning anchor Ed O'Brien, and a special guest was Miss New York USA, Danielle Roundtree.
Following are summaries on the individual champions:
Photo: Adam Coglianese |
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NAUGHTY
NEW YORKER
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NAUGHTY NEW YORKER - Horse of the Year, Champion Four-and-Up Male
Only New York-bred older male to win 2007 stakes at Aqueduct, Belmont,
and Saratoga -- at three different distances over fast and wet tracks
going both one and two turns -- and also placed second or third in three
graded stakes, including Aqueduct's Grade 1 Cigar Mile despite a bumped
start. Was formidable from January through December, winning Saratoga's
mile and an eighth Saratoga Sunrise Stakes by seven, Belmont's one-turn
mile General Douglas MacArthur Handicap by two in stakes record time,
and Aqueduct's mile and a sixteenth Alex M. Robb Handicap under top weight
on a wet inner track. His 2007 earnings of $271,799 advanced his lifetime
bankroll to $925,664 through four consecutive stakes-winning and six-figure-earning
seasons. His owner, the Fox Ridge Farm, Inc. of Peter Schiff of Syosset
(president of the Northwood Ventures investment firm), had purchased the
stretch-running bay for $145,000 at auction as a two-year-old in training
in Florida. Bred by the husband-wife veterinarian team of Drs. William
Wilmot and Joan Taylor, who own Stepwise Farm in Saratoga Springs, he
has been conditioned throughout his career by NYTB Trainer of the Year
Patrick Kelly. Although this versatile and durable graded winner has yet
to win in the spring, he is widely expected to achieve millionaire status
in 2008.
 Photo: Adam Coglianese |
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OPRAH
WINNEY
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Arguably the best sprinting filly on the East Coast from New Year's Day through early September, when she reeled off wins in Laurel Park's Grade 2 Barbara Fritchie Handicap at seven furlongs, Aqueduct's open Interborough Handicap at six furlongs on the inner track, Monmouth's Regret Stakes, and Belmont's Schenectady Handicap. Captured the Regret and Schenectady -- both at six furlongs and five weeks apart in August and September -- by more than three lengths each at odds-on for both outings. Won or placed in seven of eight starts in 2007 while racing for Michael Dubb of Jericho, Long Island, Sanford Goldfarb of Old Westbury, and the Bunch of Characters Stable that is identified with Pamela Caliendo. She was sent out for all but one of her 2007 starts by NYTB 2002 Trainer of the Year Richard Dutrow Jr. (whose brother, Anthony Dutrow, saddled the filly for the Barbara Fritchie). Bred by the Gatsas Thoroughbreds of brothers Michael and Theodore Gatsas of Manchester, New Hampshire -- founders of Sovereign Stable, Inc. and also owners of now-retired millionaire and five-time NYTB champion Gander. The leading money-earning New York-bred filly or mare in 2007, she picked up $400,394 for the year to put her earnings after three consecutive stakes-winning seasons at $585,970.
 Photo: Adam Coglianese |
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GIANT
MOON
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Unbeaten in three starts as a two-year-old from five furlongs (in 57.41) through New York Showcase Day's one-turn mile Sleepy Hollow at Belmont and Aqueduct's mile and a sixteenth Damon Runyon on the inner track, he displayed every quality an outstanding racehorse needs despite sometimes toying with his opposition. He is the only winner ever of both the Sleepy Hollow and the Damon Runyon. Bred and raced by Albert Fried Jr. of Buttonwood Farm in Rhinebeck, who was named Outstanding New York Breeder for 2002 by the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, this versatile colt is the first offspring produced from Fried's stakes-winning New York homebred, Moonlightandbeauty ($228,053). He was sent out for all of his starts by trainer Richard Schosberg, earning $135,870 as a juvenile.
 Photo: Tom Cooley Photography |
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BY
THE LIGHT
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Winner of all four of her starts as a juvenile by 19-1/2 combined lengths, going from 5-1/2 furlongs in her Belmont debut to back-to-back six-furlong stakes outings at Finger Lakes to a two-turn mile in a $300,000 stakes around Delta Downs' bullring, earning $451,815 in a flawless season. Captured Finger Lakes' $137,825 Lady Finger Stakes by 5-1/4 lengths, beat males to win the $269,200 New York Breeders' Futurity at Finger Lakes by 2-3/4 lengths, and defeated open two-year-old stakes fillies with equal ease in Delta Downs' $300,000 Boyd Gaming's Delta Princess Powered by Youbet.com Stakes. In the Delta Princess, she beat runner-up and multiple open stakes winner Miss Missile by 5-1/4 lengths at equal weights. Bred by Paul Rothfuss of Winter Springs, Florida and eventually purchased for $190,000 at Fasig-Tipton Midlantic's October yearling sale by the Jay Em Ess Stable of Samantha Siegel of Santa Monica, California. Trained by NYTB 2002 Trainer of the Year Richard Dutrow Jr., she was voted champion over two open-company stakes winners at Belmont -- one of them also unbeaten in 2007.
 Photo: Adam Coglianese |
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STUNT
MAN
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Only stakes winner on all four NYRA dirt tracks in 2007 -- Saratoga, Belmont, Aqueduct outer, and Aqueduct inner -- and placed a rallying third among eight in turf stakes competition at Saratoga in his only grass outing, he re-wrote the definition of versatility. Won Saratoga's $150,000 Albany Stakes at a mile and an eighth, captured Belmont's open More Than Ready Stakes at a one-turn mile, beat older foes in Aqueduct's seven-furlong New York Stallion Thunder Rumble Stakes, and romped by five in Aqueduct's open Don Rickles Stakes at a mile and 70 yards. His 104 Daily Racing Form Beyer figure in the Don Rickles was highest among all New York-bred three-year-olds for 2007. Won or placed in eight stakes in 2007, this son of Western Expression scored on fast tracks and in the slop, earning $347,739 of his total $353,719 bankroll through his three-year-old season. Bred and initially raced by Carl Lizza Jr.'s Flying Zee Stables, he scored five of his six victories of 2007 -- and all of his stakes tallies -- for Winning Move Stable (Steve and Brian Sigler), Island Wind Racing (Robert Teeman), and Celebrity Group Stables (Mitchell Klafter). All of his stakes outings were conducted under the care of three-time NYTB Trainer of the Year Gary Contessa.
 Photo: Adam Coglianese |
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TALKING
TREASURE
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In a contentious division featuring three open Aqueduct stakes winners, she was the leading money-earner and the only multiple stakes winner, capturing Belmont's $115,200 Bouwerie and Saratoga's Lady D'Accord -- both at seven furlongs -- and Finger Lakes' New York Oaks at a mile and a sixteenth by 11-1/4 lengths. Won on Aqueduct's inner and outer main tracks, at Belmont, Saratoga, and Finger Lakes, earning $252,620 as a three-year-old for owner-breeders Kenneth and Sarah Ramsey, who from 2004 through 2007 had stood this filly's sire, Catienus, at Carl Lizza Jr.'s and Joseph Bartone's Highcliff Farm in Delanson. Her impressive performances in the seven-furlong Lady D'Accord (in 1:22.54) and two-turn New York Oaks came 24 days apart. This talented sophomore was trained throughout 2007 by Charlton Baker, who succinctly summed up the dark bay's talents: "She'll do whatever you want her to do. She breaks easy, she's got tactical speed, and she's a super-nice filly."
 Photo: Adam Coglianese |
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DAVE
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Unleashed a dominating stretch drive to capture Aqueduct's Grade 2 Red Smith Handicap at a mile and three-eighths on yielding turf, beating a field that included two U.S. graded winners plus a French group winner, and also won Belmont's $112,800 Ashley T. Cole Handicap despite being bumped at the start. Those efforts plus two close-finishing placed performances in other Belmont grass stakes got him the nod in a division that included a 2007 graded winner on Saratoga's lawn, a 2007 group winner in Italy, and an undefeated three-year-old stakes winner at Saratoga. Owned by The Three Colleens Stable that is managed by David Stack of Oak Ridge, New Jersey and the Partingglass Stable of partnerships based in Saratoga Springs and managed by Thomas J. Gallo, who had purchased the bay gelding on behalf of the current owners. Bred and initially raced by the late Saratoga Gaming and Raceway board chairman, Joseph W. Gerrity Jr., and conditioned by NYTB 2003 Trainer of the Year Barclay Tagg, he has won stakes for the last three consecutive seasons. His earnings of $204,055 last year boosted his lifetime bankroll through 2007 to $548,092.
 Photo: Adam Coglianese |
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FACTUAL
CONTENDER
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The New York-bred "Cinderella Story" of 2007 -- she only needed some "grass" slippers to enter a new world of turf stardom, becoming the top money-earner in a division that included a multiple graded winner. Captured Belmont's open Destiny Dance Stakes at a mile and a quarter in May and later won Belmont's $109,800 Mount Vernon Handicap at a mile and an eighth and one-mile Dynamic Lisa Stakes in 1:33.39 plus Aqueduct's mile and a sixteenth New York Stallion Perfect Arc Stakes by 3-3/4 lengths. Following her turf stakes debut at Gulfstream Park when she clipped heels and finished fifth (but only a length and a half off the winner), she was never worse than second in seven subsequent grass stakes outings in 2007. The six-year-old daughter of pensioned New York-bred-and-based Thunder Puddles is a classic example of the dirt-to-turf expertise of NYTB 2003 Trainer of the Year Barclay Tagg. Owned by Thomas Farone Jr. of Gansevoort, New York, she was bred by the Flying Zee Stable of Carl Lizza Jr. and was foaled at Highcliff Farm that Lizza co-owns. Her $262,800 in 2007 earnings put her career bankroll at $481,248 off a lifetime record of 10 - 10 - 3 in 36 starts through four winning seasons.
 Photo©Benoit Photo |
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FRIENDLY
ISLAND
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NYTB Champion Male Sprinter for the second consecutive year, he raced twice in 2007 before retiring to stud in New York, but those starts confirmed him as a leading international sprinter. Captured Santa Anita's Grade 2 Palos Verdes Handicap by 2-1/2 lengths in 1:08.95 for six furlongs in January before placing a diminishing half-length behind the winner in the $2-million Dubai Golden Shaheen at Nad Al Sheba at 1,200 meters (about six furlongs) while beating 14 of the world's best sprinters. He was the only finisher among the top-five in both the 2006 TVG Breeders' Cup Sprint at Churchill Downs and the 2007 Dubai Golden Shaheen 21 weeks later. Bred by Frankie O'Connor's Kildare Stud and Adrian Regan, the handsome chestnut was foaled at Howard Kaskel's Sugar Maple Farm in Poughquag, which O'Connor had once managed, and was an $85,000 purchase at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's 2002 March sale of two-year-olds. Raced for the Anstu Stables, Inc. of Stuart and Anita Subotnick of New York City and Anstu Farm in Millbrook and was conditioned by four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Todd Pletcher. Currently standing at Sugar Maple Farm, he earned $490,000 in 2007, boosting his bankroll to $1,369,714 with a record of 8 - 3 - 2 in 19 starts.
 Photo: Tod Marks/Steeplechase Times |
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BE
CERTAIN
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Caught the steeplechase world's attention by breaking his jumping maiden in his second effort over fences in the Colonial Cup's Raymond G. Woolfe Memorial Hurdle Stakes in Camden, South Carolina in November, winning by daylight against six rivals that included a hurdling stakes winner the previous month. This three-year-old of 2007 had been competing in flat maiden specials on Belmont and Saratoga lawns last summer, but by October he was in the Gladstone Hurdle Stakes at Far Hills, New Jersey, where in his first encounter with soft turf he placed third. The winner of the Gladstone, C R's Certain, subsequently placed second in the Woolfe Memorial. Owned by the Alnoff Stable of Long Island real estate developer Michael Chasanoff of Jericho, the chestnut jump champion was bred by Sugar Maple Farm and was trained for his hurdling efforts by Thomas Voss.
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EIBAR
COA
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Leading rider of New York-bred winners in 2007, bringing home state-bred victors in 132 races with earnings of $5,343,228, including NYTB Champion Turf Female Factual Contender, graded winner Mission Approved, open Aqueduct stakes winner Sagamoon, and other 2007 stakes winners Red Zipper and Cute Cognac. Beat his leading 2006 figures in money earned by New York-bred mounts by almost 15 percent to gain his second consecutive NYTB jockey title. Guided Factual Contender to stakes victories at four different distances on turf at Belmont and Aqueduct from May to November. Was aboard Mission Approved for that colt's conversion to turf prominence in the summer and fall of 2007, when he piloted him to grass victories in Saratoga's graded Saranac and Meadowlands' Princeton. Steered three-year-old Sagamoon to her first stakes win in Aqueduct's open Busanda Stakes at a mile and 70 yards over the Big A's inner dirt track. One of only four jockeys to win 300 or more races at New York Racing Association (NYRA) tracks in one year. Previously had ridden such New York-bred graded winners as NYTB 2004 Champion Sprinter Well Fancied. A native of Venezuela and a natural athlete, he won five judo championships before enrolling in Venezuela's jockey school.
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GARY
CONTESSA
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Leading trainer of New York-breds in 2007 purse earnings, sending out 82 winners and earners of $3,895,508 to gain his third NYTB trainer championship -- second consecutive -- in four years with such standouts as graded winner Mission Approved, four-time stakes winner Stunt Man, plus other stakes winners Accountforthegold and Magnolia Jackson. Although no other trainer was close in number of starts by New York-breds in 2007, his in-the-money percentage (first, second, and third) from all outings by state-breds under his care last year was an extraordinary 42 percent-plus. He introduced Mission Approved to turf and sent out that three-year-old colt to capture Saratoga's graded Saranac on grass. He converted NYTB Champion Three-Year-Old Male Stunt Man from an allowance sprinter into a two-turn stakes winner at both Saratoga ($150,000 Albany by two lengths) and Aqueduct (open Don Rickles by five lengths). He sent out five-year-old Accountforthegold to big-margin stakes victories at Aqueduct and Belmont with the highest black-type Beyer figures (110 and 109) of any New York-bred in 2007. And he saddled earlier Grade 2 winner Magnolia Jackson -- admiringly dubbed "mean as a junkyard dog" -- for her sixth stakes victory in Aqueduct's open Correction Handicap, which the mare also had won in 2006. A New York native, he had been an assistant to Hall of Fame trainer Frank "Pancho" Martin in the early 1980s.
 Photo: Cindy Mikell |
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RICHARD
SIMON
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New York's leading breeder in 2007 earnings by a wide margin, having bred equine natives of the Empire State that won 193 races and earned of $6,073,906 for the year, including nine stakes winners from five different crops. NYTB Breeder of the Year for the third consecutive year. Bred 2007 Italian Group 3 winner Dream Impact, three-time Belmont-Saratoga juvenile stakes-winning filly Expect the End, open-company 2007 stakes winners Magnolia Jackson, Premium Wine, and Hoosick Falls, top state-bred stakes-winning Beyer-setter Accountforthegold (110 and 109), plus other 2007 state-bred stakes winners Sherine (at two), Precise Lady, and Smash 'Em Sammy. Sez Who Thoroughbreds North, LLC in Stillwater was the only New York farm that stood three of the state's top-20 sires in 2007 progeny earnings -- Prime Timber, Rizzi, and Outofthebox -- and all three of those 2007 millionaire sires have remained at the farm for 2008. Owner and founder Richard Simon is a retired businessman, an avid horseman, and a resident of Aventura, Florida.
 Photo: ©Barbara D. Livingston |
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NAUGHTY
NATISHA
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Dam of 2007 NYTB Horse of the Year and Champion Older Male Naughty New Yorker (currently $974,594) plus earlier stakes winner Pupil ($204,280) among her four winning offspring to date -- three of them six-figure-earners. Purchased for $150,000 at Keeneland in November of 1998 by Dr. William Wilmot's and Dr. Joan Taylor's Stepwise Farm in Saratoga Springs while carrying her first foal and future first stakes winner, Pupil. Naughty New Yorker and Pupil have both excelled as main track routers, but another of Naughty Natisha's six-figure-earners, Jacob's Arch, has won four times sprinting on dirt and also has scored on turf. Naughty Natisha is a half-sister to stakes winners Victorica -- dam of Irish juvenile stakes winner and English Group 3-placed King Hesperus -- and Noble Minstrel, who was a black-type stakes winner in England and Group/Grade 1-placed in France and the U.S. The multiple stakes-producing mare currently resides at Stepwise Farm and has a two-year-old filly named Thin Disguise owned by Stepwise Farm and in training in South Carolina, a yearling filly by Songandaprayer, is due to produce a foal by Bluegrass Cat in late May, and is booked to Empire Maker.